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Re: Blaming the Victim

Originally Posted by specklebang

Could you provide examples so slow, low information voters like me can understand the question? Thank you.

The most obvious example is the GOP cutting the food stamps program, which they portray as going to the lazy, when in reality they are used by the working poor and the increases in usage are directly because of the recession.

Re: Blaming the Victim

It depends on the situation. I think the OP's question is a bit overbroad. As sbrett said, there is certainly still a lot of antiquated ideas about condemning the victims of rape, and as DVS is trying to deny, there is a lot of blaming people for being born poor.

I think that we, as a country, care too much about blame and punishment. We devote too much energy to proving to ourselves why people who suffer deserve to suffer, instead of working to alleviate that suffering. This blame-centric mentality is central to our problems with criminal justice and the war on drugs, with our stance on women's reproductive rights and protecting them from rape, with our social safety nets and bringing the lowest classes up into a stable financial situation, and even in our foreign policy.

I think it stems from the Protestant and Puritan value system, and the obsession with sin and punishment. Fixing problems and helping people takes a back seat to condemnation. One more traditional value that we can do without.

Re: Blaming the Victim

Originally Posted by Paschendale

It depends on the situation. I think the OP's question is a bit overbroad. As sbrett said, there is certainly still a lot of antiquated ideas about condemning the victims of rape, and as DVS is trying to deny, there is a lot of blaming people for being born poor.

I think that we, as a country, care too much about blame and punishment. We devote too much energy to proving to ourselves why people who suffer deserve to suffer, instead of working to alleviate that suffering. This blame-centric mentality is central to our problems with criminal justice and the war on drugs, with our stance on women's reproductive rights and protecting them from rape, with our social safety nets and bringing the lowest classes up into a stable financial situation, and even in our foreign policy.

I think it stems from the Protestant and Puritan value system, and the obsession with sin and punishment. Fixing problems and helping people takes a back seat to condemnation. One more traditional value that we can do without.

Re: Blaming the Victim

Originally Posted by Gipper

Or...perhaps it's because some people get sick of hearing excuses...

No, I think it comes from a lot of self-aggrandizing. A holier than thou mentality applied to basically every aspect of life. That's definitely part of the Puritan value system that has been a part of our country since before it was even a country. It's also definitely a part of our values that were best left in the 1600's.

Re: Blaming the Victim

Originally Posted by Paschendale

I think that we, as a country, care too much about blame and punishment. We devote too much energy to proving to ourselves why people who suffer deserve to suffer, instead of working to alleviate that suffering. This blame-centric mentality is central to our problems with criminal justice and the war on drugs, with our stance on women's reproductive rights and protecting them from rape, with our social safety nets and bringing the lowest classes up into a stable financial situation, and even in our foreign policy.

I agree with you completely. I don't get it. The worst part of this preoccupation with blame is that it stands in the way of solutions. It seems quite honestly only to serve a salve for the guilty conscience of people who want to turn their backs on others or as justification in their own minds for their selfishness. "See I don't have to do anything and I still get to be the good guy!" It makes no sense to me, people scream and whine about a problem, point the finger of blame and then walk away. How does that serve making the problem go away, which is what they claim to want?

"Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers" - Voltaire
"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self" -Hemingway

Re: Blaming the Victim

Originally Posted by Fisher

Just vote no. The OP is a liberal. Everyone is a victim in liberal land.

IMHO, unfair. That's another problem for another thread but automatically deciding to agree with or disagree with a position not based on its merits but rather on how we've pre-defined the poster is in my opinion a microcosm of one big problem with American politics today. In other words, it doesn't matter that much what a given problem is. What matters is finding out who's for or against it and then side with or against, as the case may be, team over principle.

Having opinions all over the map is a good sign of a person capable of autonomous thinking. Felix -2011